Smart Meter Critics Take Their Fight To Town Meeting

A digital electric meter is seen in East Montpelier in this 2011 file photo.

(Host)
Opponents of wireless smart meters are taking their fight to Town Meeting. The
new technology allows customers to save electricity, and gives utilities the
ability to respond quickly to power outages.

But
the wireless meters have also raised health and privacy concerns. And now
voters in several southern Vermont
towns will get a chance to weigh in at next month's town meetings.

VPR's John Dillon has more.

(Dillon)
The state Health Department released a report last week that basically concludes
that the public shouldn't worry about smart meters. The report says the meters
use the same type of radio waves as cell phones - but at much lower power levels.

But
the Health Department's assurances don't placate opponents. They gathered
enough signatures against smart meters to put the issue before a number of town
meetings. Martine Victor worked on the petition drive in Manchester.

(Victor) "Many people would say already
we've reached kind of a tipping point with what's already in the environment
with this type of radiation. And to sort of just egregiously add another layer
with this smart grid technology doesn't make sense."

(Dillon)
The town meeting ballot items ask a simple question: "Shall the town oppose the
installation of wireless smart meters?"

Victor
says the goal is to get a moratorium on smart meters while questions about
safety and privacy are answered. She says other experts refute the Health
Department's conclusions.

(Victor) "We are hoping that our town
and our officials will rise to the occasion and say we don't feel this is a
beneficial technology for our town and by extension in our state."

(Dillon)
Smart meters are on town meeting warnings in Manchester,
Sandgate and Dorset.
Organizers are hoping to get enough signatures to put the issue before at least
three other towns.

Many
of the communities are in Central Vermont Public Service Corporation territory.
Spokesman Steve Costello says CVPS plans to begin installing the meters by the
end of the month. He says the potential benefits are huge.

Customers
will be able to track their power use minute-by-minute, and make decisions
about when to run appliances based on times of day when electricity rates are
low.

(Costello) "The whole push here is to
improve service ultimately to customers. We think that CVPS smart power and
other smart grid programs that are going across Vermont and across
the county have three main benefits to customers. It will help improve energy
usage control, it will help us improve service, reliability and outage
restoration, and it has environmental benefits, particularly connected to
bringing on more local, renewable energy."

(Dillon)
The utility plans to install the new meters where existing meters are located
now. The devices look much like the analog meters, but instead of the rotating dials
there is a digital display showing energy use. Costello says the technology is
safe.

(Costello) "The science is very clear
that there is no impact. And that's been determined by the World Health
Organization, by the Federal Communications Commissions, by multiple other
bodies including the state of California."

(Dillon)
If customers don't want smart meters, they have a choice to opt out. But the
utility wants to impose a monthly charge of $10 a month to cover the extra cost
it says it will incur to read the meters by hand. That potential charge bothers
Richard Dahm of Sandgate.

(Dahm) "It's sort of an insult to charge
residents $10 a month for not getting a new meter on their house. It's sort of
we don't have an option. If we don't have a new meter on, we have to pay CVPS
$10 a month."

(Dillon)
CVPS and other utilities wanted to levy the $10 charge immediately. But under
pressure from the Department of Public Service - the agency that represents
consumers - the utilities agreed to wait in order to see how many customers
opted out of the technology, and how much it actually costs to read meters by
hand.